Wellll, this is like a year late. Sorry. I’ve had some crazy years and wrote for a few different fandoms, and…well, that’s my list of excuses for this chapter, I guess.

So put it on your alerts if you want, and you’ll get notified of updates eventually.

(Oh, and how about Jamie Lynn Spears getting pregnant, huh? Think of that as a parallel to this. Except, you know, she was in a relationship with the baby’s father beforehand, but the press is just as outraged…)

Four

‘Hi Sam, could I speak to you for a moment?’

I pause, glancing up at Kris from the tree in the school grounds I was leaning against. ‘Hey Kris,’ I say tiredly. And who wouldn’t be, after the constant phone calls to lawyers and police officers, the visits to Harold’s hospital, Lucy crying uncontrollably—God, I should just stop.

Kris sits down next to me, twirling a strand of her blonde hair and smiling sadly.

‘I’m really sorry about the whole White House mess. David told me about it. And Jack.’ Kris’s face freezes over with anger. ‘What a—an idiot,’ she finished, although I got the impression that wasn’t what she was going to call him.

‘ David told me about it.’ My stomach clenches, and I feel a pang of anger, only to be replaced by guilt and fear. I knew David and Kris’s ‘relationship’ was only something to stop the press from beating David up even more—but I wish the tabloids would stop chasing after me yelling about my ‘heartbreak’.

‘It’s fine,’ I murmur. ‘What have you and David…’ I trail off, feeling sick again. Stop it, Sam! ‘What have you and David planned for the baby?’

‘Oh, well, um, we’re not totally sure. I mean, I won’t get an abortion. I’m seventeen, I don’t have many years of school left and I’ve got David’s family and my family willing to help bring up the baby. So for now we’re looking into—well, how safe it is for me to have the baby. Not for me, but for him or her, I mean.’

I’m oddly touched by Kris’ hopes to keep the baby okay.

‘Hey, Sam,’ someone yells. I look up from Kris to see Lucy running towards me.

Before I have a chance to greet her she sits down next to me and Kris, grinning like a lunatic. ‘Guess what!’ she cries excitedly.

‘What?’

‘Hi Kris,’ she adds, nodding at her. Then she turns back to me. ‘Harold’s been released from the hospital and they have a lead on Jack! Apparently his roommate woke to find him leaving one night and managed to get him to tell him where he was going. He called the police immediately afterwards. They refuse to tell me where he’s headed until they make sure he wasn’t lying to his roommate, though.’

‘That’s…great,’ I say, forcing a smile. It’s not that it wasn’t great, it’s just that I’m really tired and upset, too upset to be over-the-moon at Luce’s news.

‘You okay?’ Lucy asks me, I nod as the bell rings.

‘Well, gotta go, don’t want to be late,’ Lucy says, standing up, waving good-bye and heading off. Kris stands up as well. ‘Same here. You coming, Sam?’

I shrug and nod before getting up.

We walk in silence for a while, broken only by the snap of a twig underneath our feet, or a bird call in the distance. When we reach the edge of the now-deserted grounds she takes me by the shoulders and pushes me up against the wall, so quickly I don’t have a time to react.

‘What’re you doing?’ I ask her, confusion furrowing my brow. She stares at me intently, almost angrily for a moment, before the awkwardness of the moment sinks in and she releases me.

I continue to give her a puzzled look. ‘Um, Kris?’

For a split second, I see a flash of the menace Kris Parks used to have in her eyes, the one that doesn’t appear very often anymore. All the high school popularity crap has faded from her, along with her popularity itself. And yet, she no longer seems to care-like she’s matured enough to be above it all.

Well, I guess her current situation will do that to you.

The menace disappears, replaced with guilt. Her shoulders slump.

‘Things aren’t right between you and David,’ she says, quietly. There’s a long pause after that. ‘And that means-and that means things aren’t right with David himself.’

‘But why did you just…’

She interrupts me with the same force she always had. ‘You need to go see him.’

‘See him? He’s at school. And I’m at school.’

She rolls her eyes. ‘Yeah, cause fifth-period biology is more important than this. Come on, Samantha. You haven’t really talked to him since…since all of this began, have you?’

My heart sinks and I stare down at the concrete. I try to bite back the harsh words already making their way up my throat, but its no use.

‘No, I haven’t. And it’s your fault that I haven’t!’ Kris’s surprise barely registers as I continue. ‘All of this is your fault! You spiked his drink! You forced him to…’

Tears began to make their way down my face for the first time since my sisters’ attack. I force myself to stop talking, choosing instead to stare down at the floor again. Silence. I brush the tears away with my sleeve.

‘I’ve done a lot of shit to you, Sam,’ she says quietly. ‘But I think this is the worst.’

The tears continue, faster. I hold my sleeve to my face again and nod.

‘And I’m sorry. I really, truly, am. I did spike his drink, but not with the intention of forcing him to have sex with me. I just…some of the other girls at Right Way dared me, and I…well, now obviously I wish I hadn’t. But I’ve moved on from all of that, the cliquey crap and everything. I want to be the best mother to my child that I can be, and that isn’t going to equate to whether or not I was homecoming queen this year.’

I guess my theory was right.

I still don’t answer, waiting until the crying stops. Kris goes on.

‘I’ve messed up, and I’ve messed up big. I know that. I’ve tried to apologize for it all but it isn’t enough. David is angry with me, understandably. He’s hiding it well but every time he looks at me or touches me or simply breathes in my presence, I know. I know that in every moment he’s wishing I wasn’t in his life, and certainly not with his child. He wishes I wasn’t in his life because you have been subsequently thrown from it.’

‘That was for the press,’ I mumble.

‘But it was real on your part. And here you are, talking to me like it isn’t my fault when it is. All of it is my fault, Sam-not David’s. It’s unfair that he should be the one to receive all of your anger.’

Typical Kris, turning a passionate speech into a jab at things I was doing unfairly. Maybe I wasn’t right about her after all.

‘And you need to go see him. And you need to apologize, and more than that, you need to let him apologize. He loves you, Samantha. He’s sorry.’

More silence. I regain my composure eventually, lifting my head and closing my eyes, leaning back against the building.

‘Go on. You’ve missed half of biology already.’

‘I bet he hasn’t,’ I remind her.

‘As a matter of fact, he has. He’s at the library right now, reading “So You’re About to Become a Father” for the five hundred millionth time. I’m sure he’d be glad to see you. Go on, Sam.’

I open my eyes, taking her in. In this moment she looks more honest than I’ve ever seen her. Not a trace of deceit lurks in her eyes.

‘All right,’ I say finally. Kris grins. ‘I’ll tell Miss you went home sick, okay? I don’t think she’s gonna press it or anything, considering.’

‘No,’ I agree, beginning to head away towards the gate. ‘No, I don’t think she will.’

Just because I'm terrible at updating, I'll start the new chapter now. Right now. You'll see.